Compound transfer and direct transfer reactions induced by 17O on 13C

The elastic scattering, inelastic scattering, single-neutron transfer reactions ¹³C(¹⁷O, ¹⁶O) ¹⁴C, ¹³C(¹⁷O, ¹⁸O)¹²C and ¹³C(¹⁷O, ¹⁸O_{2+, 1.98})¹²C, and seven other exit channels which involve ⁷Li, ⁹Be, ¹¹B and ¹⁵N have been measured for the system ¹⁷O+¹³C at 12.9 and 14 MeV c.m. It is shown that all reactions mentioned above have significant contributions from compound nuclear decay, following fusion of projectile and target.     

Interaction of scanning probes with semiconductor nanocrystals; physical mechanism and basis for near-field optical imaging

We investigate the modification of photoluminescence (PL) from single semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots (NCs) in the proximity of metal and semiconducting atomic force microscope (AFM) tips. The presence of the tip alters the radiative decay rate of an emitter via interference and opens efficient nonradiative decay channels via energy transfer to the tip material. These effects cause quenching (or enhancement) of the emitter's PL intensity as a function of its distance from the interacting tip. We take advantage of this highly distance-dependent effect to realize a contrast mechanism for high-resolution optical imaging. AFM tips are optimized as energy acceptors by chemical functionalization with InAs NCs to achieve optical resolution down to 30 nm. The presented experimental scheme offers high-resolution optical information while maintaining the benefits of traditional AFM imaging. We directly measure the PL intensity of single NCs as a function of the tip distance. Our results are in good agreement with calculations made by a classical theoretical model describing an oscillating dipole interacting with a planar mirror.     

Asymptotics in percolation on high‐girth expanders

We consider supercritical bond percolation on a family of high‐girth ‐regular expanders. The previous study of Alon, Benjamini and Stacey established that its critical probability for the appearance of a linear‐sized (“giant”) component is . Our main result recovers the sharp asymptotics of the size and degree distribution of the vertices in the giant and its 2‐core at any . It was further shown in the previous study that the second largest component, at any , has size at most for some . We show that, unlike the situation in the classical Erd?s‐Rényi random graph, the second largest component in bond percolation on a regular expander, even with an arbitrarily large girth, can have size for arbitrarily close to 1. Moreover, as a by‐product of that construction, we answer negatively a question of Benjamini on the relation between the diameter of a component in percolation on expanders and the existence of a giant component. Finally, we establish other typical features of the giant component, for example, the existence of a linear path.     

Using AFM to explore food nanostructure

The major recent advances in the past year are all in the use of atomic force microscopy as an analytical tool to answer questions related to real food systems. These samples are bio materials and interfaces, all fall in one of the most challenging environments for AFM imaging. The include food dispersions, gels, and raw materials of plant and marine origin.     

Heterogeneous Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction by a Sol-Gel Electrode with Entrapped Na3[Ru2(μ-CO3)4]: The Effect of NaHCO3

The Na₃[Ru₂(μ-CO₃)₄] complex is acting as a water oxidation catalyst in a homogeneous system. Due to the significance of heterogeneous systems and the effect of bicarbonate on the kinetic, we studied the bicarbonate effect on the heterogeneous electrocatalyst by entrapping the Na₃[Ru₂(μ-CO₃)₄] complex in a sol-gel matrix. We have developed two types of sol-gel electrodes, which differ by the precursor, and are demonstrating their stability over a minimum of 200 electrochemical cycles. The pH increases affected the currents and k_cat for both types of electrodes, and their hydrophobicity, which was obtained from the precursor type, influenced the electrocatalytic process rate. The results indicate that NaHCO₃ has an important role in the catalytic activity of the presented heterogeneous systems; without NaHCO₃, the diffusing species is probably OH⁻, which undergoes diffusion via the Grotthuss mechanism. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to present a simple and fast one-step entrapment process for the Na₃[Ru₂(μ-CO₃)₄] complex by the sol-gel method under standard laboratory conditions. The results contribute to optimizing the WSP, ultimately helping expand the usage of hydrogen as a green and more readily available energy source.     

The threshold for combs in random graphs

For let denote the tree consisting of an ‐vertex path with disjoint ‐vertex paths beginning at each of its vertices. An old conjecture says that for any the threshold for the random graph to contain is at . Here we verify this for with any fixed . In a companion paper, using very different methods, we treat the complementary range, proving the conjecture for (with ). © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 48, 794–802, 2016